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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/25350268">a comfortable arrangement</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/londer/pseuds/londer'>londer</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>elmville elementary [2]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Dimension 20, Fantasy High</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>F/M, Teacher AU, getting married for tax purposes, that's it that's the fic, wedding dress shopping</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-07-18</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-07-23</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-05 07:13:32</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>2</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>2,732</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/25350268</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/londer/pseuds/londer</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>"Let's get married," Adaine says one day over lunch and Riz chokes a little on his sandwich. </p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Riz Gukgak &amp; Adaine Abernant</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>elmville elementary [2]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/1835827</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>31</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>232</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. Chapter 1</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>look this was a fun idea and i wanted to write something sweet and platonic for them.</p><p>i cannot be held accountable if you commit tax fraud. don’t take legal or tax advice from a fanfic, kids.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>"Let's get married," Adaine says one day over lunch and Riz chokes a little on his sandwich. </p><p> </p><p><em> "What </em>?" </p><p> </p><p>"Let's get married," she says, slapping him on the back. "We're both aro-ace, Riz, we might as well to get the tax benefits." </p><p> </p><p>She kind of has a point there. A school nurse salary only stretches so far. "What if they check? To see if we're <em> really </em> married?" He puts a lot of emphasis on the really to make sure that she knows he's talking like. Biblical-sense married and not just on-paper-for-tax-fraud married. </p><p> </p><p>"Oh, we'll have to move in together," Adaine says. She hands him an iPad with a checklist on it. "And we should probably have some kind of wedding. I did some research online, I think as long as we cohabitate they can't really do much." </p><p> </p><p>"Huh," Riz scrolls down the page. "I'll think about it and get back to you?" </p><p> </p><p>"Okay," Adaine says with a shrug. "It's not like I'm planning on finding someone else." </p><p> </p><p>Riz thinks about it. Riz thinks about it twenty four fucking seven for a whole <em> week </em>. He looks at wedding blogs. He talks to the guy on his beer league hockey team who's an accountant about it. He calls his mom. </p><p> </p><p>The blogs are full of burlap and lace and hipster bullshit. Terry from beer league tells him to go for it, if he thinks she's the one, that he could see a substantial decrease in his taxes if he does. Riz is probably going to have to invite him to the wedding, oops. Sklonda bursts into tears when he calls, and in hindsight, he probably shouldn't have opened with "How would you feel if Adaine and I got married?". She's a little mad at him when he explains it all to her, but he knows she was worried about him living out his life alone in his apartment, so it's no surprise she's pretty onboard with the moving-in-with-someone-else part. </p><p> </p><p>It just. It makes sense. Adaine and Riz have been fast friends since his first day at Elmville Elementary. They've known each other for six years, have been a constant fixture in each other's lives. He loves her as much as he can love anyone, as much as he loves all his friends. She's a fixture in his life already; getting married would just be a piece of paper that legitimizes them hanging out all the time and going to new restaurants together to order only from the dessert menu.</p><p> </p><p>"Let's do it," he tells Adaine while they're supervising recess the next week and she smiles at him. </p><p> </p><p>"We'll need rings," she says, giving him a fist-bump. </p><p> </p><p>The next month passes in a flurry of planning and spreadsheets and pdfs sent back and forth for electronic signatures. Adaine has a house, so Riz tells his landlord he won't be renewing his lease and moves out early, starts subletting the place. Adaine's house is pretty and cottage-like, with lovely art on the walls and a full garden in the back and Riz feels terrible leaving his gross hockey gear and extra sneakers around until she smacks him upside the head and tells him to get over himself. They turn the spare room in Riz's bedroom and spend a long hour in a passive aggressive fight over whose couch to keep. Riz wins, because his is newer and has storage under the cushions.</p><p> </p><p>Wedding planning is stressful. They decide to get married in the backyard, they pick a local italian place to get catering from, they tell their friends who all freak the fuck out. Fig cries and she and Kristen tackle Adaine in a hug. They immediately start bickering about maid-of-honor things and when they're all going to go wedding dress shopping together because <em> Adaine Abernant I don't care if this is a wedding for tax fraud purposes we are putting you in a white dress if it kills us </em>. Fabian laughs so hard he spills his beer all over his shorts and Gorgug starts giving some very earnest and good advice about weddings from when he and Zelda got married last year. Ragh offers to officiate and they accept immediately because Ragh is the best and won't read any of the weird Bible passages about women being servants or property. The one thing they agree they need to do is a real cake, and they go to several bakeries in town for tastings and eat a Lot of cake samples. The final decision is lemon sponge with vanilla buttercream and raspberry jam and it's the best thing Riz has ever eaten in his entire life. </p><p> </p><p>And then there's school. Everyone at Elmville Elementary goes <em> ballistic </em> when they find out about the two of them, parents and students and teachers alike. Half the student body had Ms. Abernant for kindergarten and everybody knows Mr. Gukgak from the time they puked or had a really bad headache or needed an ice pack. There are swarms of questions when the news gets out, about last names (Mrs. Abernant and Mr. Gukgak, no big changes) and the wedding (small, just family and close friends) and <em> children </em> (they have enough children at school, thanks). One of the PTA meetings is 'bachelor/ette' themed and someone brings in a cake. It's a lot, but it's fun and it's nice to know the school community loves them this much. </p><p> </p><p>They get married two weeks after school gets out in their back garden. It's small, only twenty people there, but everyone who loves them the most is there. Jawbone walks Adaine down the aisle and is sobbing openly by the time he hands her off to Riz. She's in white, a simple off-the-shoulder thing and her hair has little metal flowers pinned into it. Fabian and Gorgug are Riz's groomsmen and Kristen and Fig and Aelwyn are Adaine's bridesmaids and the garden is in full bloom around them and the fairy lights Riz spent hours putting up twinkle prettily. They do kiss at the end, because Ragh forgot to change the words, but it's quick and sweet and chaste, and Tracker wolf-whistles at them from her seat. Then there's cake and music and dancing, the party spilling in and out of the house as they please. Riz's heart feels full to bursting to see all the people he cares about in one place enjoying themselves. </p><p> </p><p>They honeymoon in Greece, spend their days in museums and historical sites or on the beach. Sharing a bed is no big deal for either of them, they just collapse with exhaustion onto the mattress in their hotel room after long days of adventures. When they get home, Adaine writes the thank-you notes for the handful of wedding presents they couldn't talk people out of buying them and Riz sets up their new joint bank account and a meeting with an accountant to get all their finances squared away. </p><p> </p><p>It's easy living. Adaine's a good roommate-slash-wife and Riz tries to be a good roommate-slash-husband. They have a similar taste in movies and Riz helps Adaine with her grading and Adaine is really good at fixing the appliances when they break. Riz re-learns to put the toilet seats down and Adaine learns to turn down the volume on her morning yoga videos. School starts again and they drive in to work together every morning and take turns putting their lunches together. The kids are a little wild about it, but calm down after the first week when they realize that Riz and Adaine are still their same (slightly boring) selves. </p><p> </p><p>They go to the high school football games together, hold board game nights for their friends, run the Turkey Trot in November, go to the middle school musical to see Adaine's oldest students' first performances. Fall freezes into winter and they build fires in the living room and sometimes snuggle into the same bed because damn it, it's fucking cold in Elmville in January and platonically having another human body nearby is good for heating purposes. They don't do anything for Valentines' Day because why would they, but they do babysit Anthony so Gorgug and Zelda can have a nice night out. </p><p> </p><p>Tax season rolls around again and they slap a wordless high-five when they see their refund amount. </p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. Adaine's Big Day</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Sometimes you just wanna write Adaine going wedding dress shopping okay?</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <em>
    <span>florette's fancies</span>
  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"She doesn't know what she wants and this is the first time she's trying things on," Fig says conspiratorially to their consultant. "She'll probably need to try on a </span>
  <em>
    <span>lot</span>
  </em>
  <span> of different styles." </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Adaine gives Fig her best dirty look and Fig just beams at her as the consultant scurries away to start pulling dresses. The wedding's in a month, so they're pretty limited in terms of needing to get a dress off the rack that won't need alterations, but Fig's determined to put Adaine into as many dresses as possible "for the </span>
  <em>
    <span>experience</span>
  </em>
  <span>, Adaine!". </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Aelwyn wordlessly hands Adaine a mimosa and starts flipping through a nearby rack. She makes an amused little snorting noise at one of the dresses, which means it's probably hideous and Adaine is probably going to end up stuffed into it at some point. Adaine politely doesn't chug her mimosa and joins Kristen looking through one of the racks. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>The dresses are nice, but nothing that she's looking for. Although Fig was on to something with the try-every-style attitude because Adaine now knows she wants nothing to do with lace (itchy) or ballgowns (makes her look like a cupcake) or glitter (messy and terrible). Kristen gushes and takes a million photos and Fig cries when Adaine comes out in the first dress and Aelwyn dismisses every dress as soon as she can tell that Adaine doesn't like it. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>
    <span>david's bridal</span>
  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Jawbone comes along on this one because Adaine read on a blog that it's nice to invite your parents to go wedding dress shopping. Her adoptive father takes one look at the glee on Fig and Kristen's faces and starts running point so Adaine can do some shopping on her own terms while he distracts them in the bridesmaid dress section. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Everything she tries on is nice. It's all just </span>
  <em>
    <span>nice</span>
  </em>
  <span> and the wedding blogs say that it should be </span>
  <em>
    <span>magical</span>
  </em>
  <span>. Adaine didn't put a ton of stock in their advice until she brought Jawbone along and he got all misty eyed when he saw her in the first dress. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"Kiddo," he says gruffly, taking a big handful of tissues from the man helping them. "When did you go get all grown?" She starts to sniffle too and this is a disaster, she and Riz are getting queerplatonic married so they can scam the government. Jawbone pulls her into the best hug he can with the sheer volume of skirts surrounding her. "Modern weddings put so much emphasis on romantic love, but you and Riz deserve to be happy and loved in the way you do best. And it doesn't hurt for your old man to get to see you all dressed up and beautiful for the big day." </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Well, there go the waterworks. And if the blogs were right about bringing Jawbone, maybe they were right about other things, like the feeling of finding The Dress. It's an unproductive shopping trip for her, but they do get the girls' bridesmaid dresses.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>
    <span>violet's bridal designs</span>
  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"Absolutely not," Adaine hisses, clutching her hands over her chest and peeking out from behind the changing room curtain. "Fig, this is </span>
  <em>
    <span>indecent</span>
  </em>
  <span>, I've got like a whole boob out right now!" </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"It can't possibly be that bad," Fig says, nudges her way into the dressing room. Adaine drops her arms and Fig's eyebrows shoot up. "Yeah, no, okay, that is a lot of titty for the occasion. The corset top is so </span>
  <em>
    <span>pretty</span>
  </em>
  <span> though!" </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"I do like the structure, but </span>
  <em>
    <span>Fig.</span>
  </em>
  <span> This is a wedding for," Adaine drops her voice a little, "</span>
  <em>
    <span>Tax fraud!</span>
  </em>
  <span>"</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Fig nods thoughtfully like Adaine has said something particularly wise. "Fair, fair, fine. Try the swishy skirt one next, it's also got boning in the top for some structure." </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>The swishy skirt one is really beautifully cut and when she walks out Kristen gasps very dramatically. It is nice, but it's also a </span>
  <em>
    <span>lot</span>
  </em>
  <span> of dress with all the layers of fabric. Aelwyn deems it an acceptable backup in case they don't find anything Adaine likes better. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>
    <span>ellie's luxury consignments</span>
  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>It's two weeks out and there's a little bit of panic creeping into the back of Adaine's mind. Kristen found her dress for her and Tracker's wedding here, so she's trying to be optimistic, but nothing is her size and there's no time for alterations. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"It's not going to zip," Kristen says, drops her hands away from Adaine's back. "Sorry, Ads." </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"It's fine," Adaine says. She lets her lungs re-fill with air and feels the zipper run down her spine as it's forced back open. Hot tears are filling her eyes and it's not good, so she fiddles with one of the straps on her shoulder to distract herself. "Maybe I don't get a real dress. It's not a real wedding, I can wear whatever?" </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Kristen spins her around and holds her arms and stares her dead in the face. "Adaine. Ads. Baby. If you didn't care in some small way about this, you would have decided that weeks ago. But you do care. You want to honor your relationship, you want to honor your partnership, and the way that makes the most sense to do so is through a slightly archaic capitalist ritual where you gather the people you care about, you put on a pretty dress, and you say some words and eat a lot of cake. We are going to find you the pretty dress of your dreams, Ads, I pinky promise you." </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>It's all the right things to say. Unfortunately, it's also all the ones that will make her cry. Wedding dress shops must spend a fortune on Kleenex.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>
    <span>david's bridal 2: electric boogaloo</span>
  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Aelwyn swings into the parking lot of the David's Bridal and jumps out of the car as soon as she's parked. Adaine scrambles to grab her bag from the floor of the passenger seat and gets out of the car after her, has to hurry to catch up with Aelwyn as she crosses the parking lot. The last time Aelwyn showed up to her house unannounced and silently dragged her on a mysterious mission, they had driven four states away to rescue a mastiff puppy from a kill shelter that was closing down. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"Aelwyn, what the hell - " </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>"I have a dress on hold for Abernant," Aelwyn says, fully ignoring Adaine and marching up to the front desk. The girl behind the counter disappears into the back room and returns with a dress in a billowing plastic bag. "Go on," she says to Adaine, herding her firmly after the salesgirl towards the dressing rooms. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Adaine goes because the sooner she gets this over with the sooner she can go home to finish report cards for the year. She wiggles into the dress and flings open the curtain to her dressing room and - oh. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>The lighting is terrible but the mirrors on the walls are big and Aelwyn is sitting on the couch looking smug because this is the fabled The Dress that wedding blogs gush about. She takes a minute to freeze like a startled deer before walking up onto the little platform in front of the trifold mirrors to just stare at herself. It's a simple dress, plain ivory, off the shoulder, just a little bit of draping for some dimension. It's exactly her size, and she hardly ever thinks of herself as </span>
  <em>
    <span>beautiful </span>
  </em>
  <span>but in this dress she certainly is. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Aelwyn comes up and hugs her from behind and Adaine can see the smug, terrible grin on her face. She hands Adaine her unlocked phone. It's open to her Notes app and there's a really long file of notes from all the shopping they did, interspersed with photos of the dresses Adaine liked and the ones she hated and the ones that were nearly perfect but fell short in some way. It's so brutally Aelwyn, to keep such careful track of what she liked and to then find a dress that fit every specification without saying a word. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Adaine is long since sick of crying over dresses, but she lets a few tears slip anyways. </span>
</p><p> </p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Ref for The Dress <a href="https://www.davidsbridal.com/Product_draped-off-the-shoulder-crepe-sheath-gown-int19673-int19673-37453--1_all-wedding-dresses">here</a></p>
        </blockquote><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>you can find me on tumblr <a href="https://elsie-writes.tumblr.com">here</a></p></blockquote></div></div>
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